Perhaps because Byrne will be celebrating his 90th birthday Tuesday, it comes to mind this week. Over the past dozen years, I have had the pleasure of getting to know Byrne socially. After I moderated a program between Byrne and former Gov. Tom Kean Sr. at William Paterson University, I became friends with the governor and his wife, Ruthi, and we have dinner a few times a year.

I was in high school when Byrne was elected governor. As a Long Island native, what he was doing in New Jersey was not of great importance to me. Talk to older politicians now and you hear about Byrne saving the Pinelands and laying the foundation for Atlantic City's embrace of legalized gambling, and the institution of a state income tax. Most tell me that Byrne's now-signature wit at public events was not so common back in the day.

Yet the former prosecutor and governor has managed to reach three milestones for a New Jersey politician: He is beloved. He is respected. He hasn't been indicted.

So I go back to "chalk under his shoes" as I continue to study the hefty report issued last week by Randy Mastro for Governor Christie. Simply put, the question being asked around the country is whether Chris Christie has chalk under his shoes. The Mastro report concludes he does not. Maybe that is true. But it is clear that no one asked the governor to expose a sole for examination.

The driving force behind the report was to show that Christie never was in on the plotting of the access lane closures at the George Washington Bridge and knew nothing more about the event than that it was a supposed traffic study.

The report goes to great lengths to depict two individuals as the schemers: David Wildstein and Bridget Kelly.

Wildstein worked at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in a job created for him. He reported to Bill Baroni, a former state senator, who landed very softly at the Port Authority as its deputy executive director courtesy of Christie. Kelly was one of Christie's deputy chiefs of staff.

According to the report, Kelly is a distraught, out-of-control, needy woman, while Wildstein is an out-of-control, also needy-when-it-comes-to-Christie's attention man on a mission. What that mission was is never explained. Neither is why these people, if they were indeed so volatile, were hired and retained.

Wildstein's former life running a political website under a pseudonym is not explored. Former U.S. Attorney Christie's penchant for leaking material to the media, including Wildstein's site, is not mentioned. Wildstein appears to have popped out of the sky like the Wizard of Oz and landed in the Port Authority.

Kelly is so ill-treated by the report that she is much like the Wicked Witch of the East; you can't see much of her because someone dumped a house on her head.

The only way the Mastro report is credible is if the reader believes the governor never lies or distorts the truth while everyone else around him does. It's a huge leap of faith.

Wildstein allegedly tells his friend and Christie's spokesman Michael Drewniak at a dinner that he told the governor about the supposed traffic studywhile the GWB lanes were still being diverted. That information is shared with Christie. The report concludes that either Wildstein said something that was not deemed significant by Christie or the conversation never happened. End of probe.

Yet throughout this scandal, while Wildstein has been called many things by his enemies, liar isn't one of them. So if Wildstein is telling his friend Drewniak something, shouldn't that be as plausible as the governor saying he did not say such a thing? Why is one person's word gospel and another's heresy?

Like so many scandals, the originating incident is not as significant as the subsequent events. If Wildstein, Kelly and possibly people yet identified decided to divert traffic at the GWB to exact some kind of revenge on the mayor of Fort Lee, that would have been bad, but it would not take down the political career of someone who was being touted as being made of presidential timber. That was my assessment of the scandal in December.

But if Christie knew early on and let Wildstein and Baroni stay, if he had credible evidence Kelly was lying and did nothing, and if even now, he remains determined to try to deflect responsibility for putting all these people in positions of authority, America will be yelling "timber" and the great tree Christie will come down for good.

No governor completely escapes scandals — there are poor hires and lapses in judgment, both personal and professional. The men and women who do more than survive knew the lines that could not be crossed without consequences. Maybe that is why I enjoy the occasional dinner with Byrne. He is free to say whatever he wants at this stage of his life, and it is often quite funny. But it is also often perceptive – you don't get to be 90 without learning a thing or two about life.

Randy Mastro and his report cannot make the GWB scandal go away because whether Christie likes it or not, the scandal is firmly attached to him. Whatever he does from now until 90, this is part of his legacy. Brendan Byrne gave New Jersey the Pinelands. So far, the Christie administration gave us traffic in Fort Lee.

Whether there are brighter chapters to be written in the Christie narrative comes down to one simple question: Is there chalk under Chris Christie's shoes?

Alfred P. Doblin is the editorial page editor of The Record. Contact him at doblin@northjersey.com. Follow AlfredPDoblin on Twitter.